5 Responses to Food Water Shelter

Hey Permacyclists,
How exciting! the next step from Helen Nearing in New ENgland. It is certainly inspiring. I wish I waqs an architecht and engineer , how does the average dolt do this? Are there companies who can build like this? or is this something an individual needs to feel passionate enough to learn? The off the grid idea appeals so much as well.
Thanks for showing this idea
Love
Tysa

Hi Terri, glad you liked the update! I’m sure there are builder types who know how to make passive solar houses work, and there must be permaculture designers who know how to set up an aquaponic and water catchment system. Anyone with opposable digits can build a compost toilet though.
I think for us that a lot of the pleasure comes in the building and designing and learning along the way. We loved our natural building course, and we know that there are some other schools around where the non-architectural among us can learn how to build houses and do basic carpentry – some well known ones are even in VT, not too far from you guys… not to give you too many bad ideas, but one of the schools is online: http://www.yestermorrow.org.

David and Anna,
A very nice presentation on FoodWaterShelter, which is certainly an essential anomaly in water-and-resource wastful and too affluent West Austin! We will contact Lester, and perhaps be able to go visit and see the house. When you return from Latin America, try to go to the Santa Fe and Taos, New Mexico area, where there are lots of experimental, sustainable houses and living projects. Some go back to the ’60s!
All the best, Gordon

Thank you for your comments, glad you liked the piece. I hope you do get a chance to meet Lester, he is a really nice person and he’ll talk your ear off if you give him the chance. I think he organizes visits from time to time to show what he’s working on – it should all be finished this fall, which would be a great time to go see it (like we say, there’s no air conditioning…).